


Stars in Hiding

by Neuqe



Series: Neuqe's Flashvibe week '17 [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Basically almost all characters appear, Established Relationship, FlashVibe Week 2017, Fluffy, M/M, day 2 secret relationship au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 15:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11187921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neuqe/pseuds/Neuqe
Summary: "It is getting rather confusing for all parties involved, and Cisco would prefer if his life did not resemble this much a 90’s situational comedy"Barry and Cisco decide to keep their relationship as a secret. It is not necessarily the best idea.





	Stars in Hiding

Cisco wakes up to a rattle of dishes and to the low sound of his coffee maker accompanied by whooshes of air.

He can smell slightly burned toast and he can hear Barry humming in the kitchen, and a smile spreads across his face. 

Honestly, Cisco has not thought about it this far.

For his defence, last night did not go according to the plan. His plans did not include him spilling out his feelings for Barry in a heat of a moment when he returned from a mission that nearly killed him, but he had done it anyway.

He blames it on the temporary feeling of pure terror when he thought he had lost Barry, which quickly turned into anger.

When Barry’s initial reaction for his confession was not to run away from him, but look at him as if he was the eighth wonder of the world, he had been living in that moment.

Immense happiness and relief had taken over. Barry’s similar reaction just magnified his feelings. For a moment, it had felt like nothing could go wrong in life.

They did not have time to worry about anything. They thought only about the present moment, not the future.

Now, that the future, or more accurately morning after, is here, it does not seem that horrible either.

In a way, he wants time to stop, to freeze on this moment.

The sun makes its way through the window, softly lighting up the bedroom. He feels more carefree than in ages, and the day has not yet started. It is quiet, despite the sounds Barry is making in the kitchen, and he feels oddly safe and content.

He wants to savour this moment because it feels fragile, too. As soon as he gets out of the bed, and properly decide that the day has started, anything can ruin the mood.

He is not entirely sure what Barry wants or expects from their relationship. In the end, they did not end up doing that much talking last night.

He only knows that he wants this to be _something_.

Eventually, he drags himself out of the comforts and warmth of the bed because he is starving and he wants to make sure Barry is not destroying his small kitchen.

“Morning,” Cisco mutters as he slowly walks to the kitchen, and takes a seat next to the table that is completely cramped with food.

“Good morning,” Barry answers happily and kisses Cisco’s cheek before rushing to take the pieces of bread out of the toaster.

Cisco rubs his eyes, and suppresses a yawn as he looks at the table again. “You made breakfast,” he concludes, and it sounds like an understatement of the year.

Barry grins brightly. His hair is worse than a bird’s nest, and Cisco suspects his hair is not any better, but he does not find the energy to care.

“I did. I wasn’t sure what you would like to have so I kind of made…everything,” Barry tells with a sheepish smile, and vaguely gestures to the table.

“Thank you,” Cisco says sincerely. It is a sweet gesture, and it has been ages since anyone has made breakfast for him. “You didn’t have to make all of this, you know,” he continues, and he puts few slices of toast to his plate.

“I know,” Barry answers with a grin and sits down. “But I figured that I would anyway eat like half of your food as a breakfast and I wanted to be a good boyfriend, so I ended up doing all of this.”

 _Boyfriend._ Cisco’s brain short-circuits for a moment and he abruptly stops chewing his slice of toast when Barry mentions the word, and his unconscious reaction makes Barry to jump to his own conclusions.

“We are dating, right?” Barry asks with a frown.

“Yeah,” Cisco answers quickly. “Or at least I hoped we would be. I just didn’t know that’s what you wanted,” he explains softly.

“Of course that’s what I want,” Barry says as if it is the most obvious thing in the whole world.  He reaches for his hand and intertwines their fingers gently. Cisco’s stomach twists in the best way possible.

It is a real possibility that Barry’s smile could outshine the morning sun, and it is a contagious smile and Cisco cannot stop smiling, either.

Barry chuckles softly, and Cisco gently pulls him into a kiss.

It is a sloppy kiss because they both are grinning and they are too lazy to move their kitchen chairs to closer, which makes kissing rather challenging but either one of them are willing to give up.

“Dating sounds good,” Barry concludes with laughter as they eventually depart from the kiss.

“Yeah,” Cisco breathes out with a huge grin.

He sips his coffee and tries to figure out how to construct his thoughts into words that make sense.

“Just one more thing,” he says almost carefully, and stares at his coffee mug instead of Barry.

“Anything,” Barry says with absolute conviction and carefree smile.

“It’s more like a request, and we don’t have to do it this way if you don’t want to, but I was thinking if we could keep this between the two of us for now. I really wanna make this thing between us to work, and though I love our team, they can be a bit--“ Cisco pauses for a moment trying to find the most suitable word.

“Invasive? Nosy? We have a chronic tendency to get involved with every aspect of each other’s personal life?” Barry suggests with a half-grin.

“Exactly,” Cisco confirms.

Cisco is convinced that he and Barry can find enough pressures and issues about their relationship by themselves without adding any external pressures by their friends and family. Besides, keeping their relationship as a secret is not a life-threatening secret, and not team Flash business, per se.

“I’m fine living in this happy bubble with just the two of us for a little longer,” Barry says and reaches to kiss his forehead as he stands up to pour himself another cup of coffee.

***

Few days later, they are in the cortex. Barry is sitting on Cisco’s workstation while Cisco is trying to repair a small tear in the sleeve of the suit.

“Is it too much to ask that you would stop destroying our suit?” Cisco scoffs with mild annoyance and tries to put yet another pin into the fabric, which is challenging as Barry is still wearing the suit.

“It’s not my fault that some meta decided to pick up swords fighting. Those things are sharp,” Barry tells him matter-of-factly, and watches Cisco’s handiwork.

Cisco rolls his eyes, and continues to work. “Yeah, it’s just that you keep damaging the suit more often than Kirk rips his shirt, and it’s always me who repairs it.”

Barry snorts.

“And stop moving, or I’ll use you as a pincushion,” Cisco threatens, but there is no real heat behind it.

Barry remains quiet, but he gently pushes a strand of Cisco’s hair away from his face. He glances up to look at Barry, and his face softens.

“I’m sorry. If it really bothers you to stitch up the suit every time, you could just teach me how to do it and I could do it by myself,” Barry suggests softly.

Cisco puts the pins down to the table, and ruffles his own hair. “It’s not that much work. Besides, I’m just complaining because I can,” he says.

In a way, it is true. He is merely channelling his annoyance because Barry almost got hurt again, and he could not prevent it. 

“But if you really wanna learn, I can teach you,” he adds more softly.

“It can be our couple hobby, sewing our superhero suits together,” Barry chuckles, and Cisco resists the urge to punch him in the arm and settles for snorting.

“Which reminds me, do you want to go and check out that new Chinese restaurant on 44th and Burrows? As a date and a humble apology for destroying the suit,” Barry says with a brilliant grin, and shakes his arm slightly, causing few of the pins to fall to the floor.

Cisco stares at the pins on the floor, and then glances at Barry, who has the decency to look apologetic and to reach down to collect the pins from the floor.

“Sure, that sounds great,” Cisco says and takes the pins away from Barry. He places his hand on his arm. “And don’t worry about the suit, alright? It fulfilled its purpose, you didn’t get hurt.”

Barry’s smile seems enamoured, and Cisco is too occupied at staring at him to notice that Caitlin has walked into the cortex at some point.

Cisco is not sure how they missed the sound of her high heels against the floor of the cortex.

“I’m sorry, but did you mention that you were going to the new Chinese place? Do you mind if I tag along? I was supposed to go there with my friend, but she had to cancel at the last minute,” she tells.

Cisco glances Barry briefly. He knows that they cannot tell no to Caitlin if they want to keep their relationship as a secret, and they are not going to fail after mere three days.

“Sure,” Barry says with slightly too much enthusiasm, but Caitlin does not seem to notice it.

“More the merrier, right?” Cisco answers with a smile, and he tries to bury the stinging feel of disappointment somewhere deep.

“Great,” Caitlin says with a bright smile and turns around to walk up to her workstation.

“Sorry,” Barry murmurs quietly enough for Caitlin not to be able to hear him.

“Not your fault. We just have to practise this whole secret relationship thing,” Cisco whispers back with a grin, and touches Barry’s knee because it seems that Caitlin is no longer paying attention to them. “Let’s just fix the suit.”

***

Few weeks later, Cisco realises they are not necessarily improving in their skills of keeping their new relationship as a secret.

Barry speeds off to finish some paper work in the precinct, and immediately after he has left STAR labs, Iris slides next to Cisco with her chair.

Cisco continues routinely checking the police reports from the past few weeks for anything odd that could indicate metahumans, and Iris remains quiet. He is aware that she is staring at him, and it is slightly unnerving, and Cisco is grateful that he can at least pretend to be busy.

 “I have a question,” Iris eventually says.

“Ask away,” Cisco answers and abandons the police reports.

“Is Barry dating someone?”

Cisco’s first thought is that Iris is way too skilled at reading people, and his following thoughts are fuelled with slight panic and various ways to survive this discussion without telling her the truth or leading her to the truth.

“I-Why do you think that?” Cisco is proud that he stammers only a little bit.

Iris sighs. “He is acting differently, not in a bad way, but he seems happier, you know?” Iris explains and taps the table with her fingers. “He smiles even more than usually, and he is constantly chirpy. As if anything could not go wrong in his life.”

A wave of warmth spreads in Cisco’s chest by the mere thought that he is able to make Barry noticeable happy. Luckily, Iris does not seem to notice this.

“Maybe it’s just the lack of villainous metahumans,” Cisco suggests, trying to steer the conversation away from Barry’s love life.

“And he is keeping secrets and being all mysterious,” Iris continues, and points Cisco with her finger. “Last week I asked what he had done the previous night and he said that he had spent the whole evening in bed watching nature documents. That alone is a lie. Barry hates nature documents because he cannot watch when baby animals die. Besides, there were also sightings of whoosh of air and bright light resembling lightning in a different city, which means Barry wasn’t at home.”

Cisco no longer knows what to answer. The sightings were not false. Barry had sped them to another city because he wanted to have at least one date, which their team members could not interrupt.

“You make a compelling case,” Cisco answers, “you should have been a private detective, you’re missing your calling here,” Cisco jokes, and makes Iris laugh.

“I just don’t know why you are asking this from me,” he continues, and he is truly puzzled. Either Iris is conducting a poll, asking people whether her theory is valid, or she _knows_.      

“You guys spend so much time together and you’re close, I thought that he might have told you who he is dating,” Iris answers with a small shrug.

“He hasn’t told me anything,” Cisco says slightly too fast, and he prays Iris believes him. He is bad at lying, and Iris is too good at catching lies.

Iris hums as a response. “I’m happy if he is happy. I just don’t understand why he won’t tell us he is dating someone.”

“Maybe it’s just difficult trying to combine his personal life with the team Flash life. There’s pretty much pressure. I’m sure he will tell us when he feels he’s ready for it,” Cisco tries his best to sound as if he is speculating, and not telling the truth.

“Yeah, that could be it,” Iris says thoughtfully, and seems to be satisfied with Cisco’s response for now.

She looks as if she might say something more, but her phone beeps and interrupts her.

“Sorry, I have to go, my interviewee wants to meet up earlier than planned,” she says as she looks up from the phone and collects her bag and coat.

“But tell me if Barry speaks to you about his mystery significant other,” Iris calls out just before she leaves the cortex.

“I will,” Cisco mutters as an answer with a nervous laugh.

He wants to bang his head against the table. He knew Iris is good at solving mysteries and puzzles, but he did not expect her to get hang of their relationship this fast.

***

“You argue like an old married couple.”

Barry and Cisco glance at Jesse who sits on one of the chairs. She is still wearing her suit, and she frankly looks quite fed up with the situation.

Cisco cannot blame her.

Their latest mission had not been successful, and everyone had grown more or less frustrated when civilians got hurt. The team lacks a coherent plan, and nobody knows what to do, which understandably showed in their teamwork.

“We are not married,” Barry blurts out, and decides not to elaborate further.

Jesse gives him a confused look, and Barry avoids her gaze afterwards.

Cisco is not sure what will happen first. Whether Iris will find out about their relationship or Barry will be faster and just blurt it out or say the wrong thing. It could be either one of the possible scenarios.

It is a small miracle, in Cisco’s opinion, that they have managed to keep the secret for a month. Barry is the worst liar he has ever met.

“Excuse me, this isn’t arguing,” Cisco says, and gestures between them, “this is just a strategic discussion about the course of our actions, and we’re doing this in completely calm manner.”

Cisco is willing to admit, that they may have been bickering, not arguing, but he just wants to shift the attention away from their relationship.

Barry rolls his eyes, and Jesse snorts. Cisco glares at both of them.

“We are not a couple, either,” Barry mutters, as if he has only now realised that he only denied the married part of the previous comment.

“It’s just a figure of speech,” Jesse says, perplexed, “or at least it is in Earth-2.”

She hops off from the chair, and looks at them as if she is suspecting that both of them are losing it. “Iris was right, you two are acting weird.”

“We’re not,” Cisco rushes to say, “Barry’s just stressed about the mission. Right, Barry?”

“Right, yes. Sorry,” Barry answers rapidly with a sheepish smile, and rubs his neck.

“Anyway,” Jesse says, and she does not sound at all convinced, “tell me when you have figured it all out, and we have a plan. I’m going to find Wally.”

She speeds away from the cortex, leaving Cisco and Barry alone.

Barry grimaces as soon as she is gone, and Cisco lets out a laugh.

“You’re so bad at this, it’s unbelievable,” Cisco tells him.

“I am,” Barry confirms but he is smiling nevertheless, “but lucky for you I’m good at some other things.” Barry wraps his arms around Cisco and pulls him closer.

“Yeah, like what?” Cisco asks, and he cannot stop smiling.

He has grown fond of that feeling.

“Like this,” Barry says and kisses him.

It is a sweet and tender kiss. Barry’s lips taste like sweat, but Cisco does not care. He cares more about Barry’s hands that have made their way to his hair, and his hands that sliding down Barry’s sides. The kiss is full of warmth and affection.

“I’m also good at other things like making a battle strategy,” Barry says with a smug smile as they depart, but he keeps his hands around him.

“I can say on good authority that your current plan sucks and your kissing skills are far better than your strategic planning skills,” Cisco informs with a smirk.

“That hurts, truly. But we could talk about the strategy while we eat lunch,” he suggests.

“That is, by far, the worst way you have asked me out,” Cisco laughs.

“Is that a yes?”

“Of course it is a yes.”

***

It has been a relatively quiet day, there has been no new metahuman alerts and Central City in general has not encountered any new emergencies.

The whole team is idle, trying to pass the time, hoping that something would happen. Wally, Jesse and Barry have practiced the whole morning in speed lab, Julian and Caitlin rearranged the medical supplies, Iris is writing her next big scoop and Cisco is tinkering with his Vibe glasses.

The atmosphere is restless, and even more after the speedsters decided to abandon their practise and spend their time in the cortex.

Wally and Jesse are doing Wally’s course work together in the corner, and Barry is just observing Cisco’s work and asking occasional questions.

Cisco is convinced they end up grinning at each other more than actually talking about the glasses, and eventually he does not manage to do that much tinkering, either.

“I should probably go back to the precinct. There were some files that Joe wanted to show me,” Barry announces, and stands up from his chair.

There is a series of approving murmurs, but no one actually pays attention to him, and just continue with their tasks.

Barry reaches down to kiss Cisco’s cheek, and at first, it feels like the most natural thing in the world because that is what Barry does. He kisses his cheek every time he has to leave somewhere, and to be honest Cisco likes it.

It is a small gesture, but it is still full of affection. It is one of those things that Cisco never expected when imagining a relationship with Barry, but it turns out to be one of his favourite things.

In fact, it seems so natural that it takes few seconds before either one of them realises that Barry did it in front of their team.

Cisco freezes, and he can feel Barry tensing up beside him. He is also painfully aware that everyone in the room is staring at them.

He tilts his head slightly to look Barry in the eyes, and he tries his best non-verbally communicate to him to do _something_.

Barry apparently understands as he speeds up. Instead of running away from the cortex, he kisses every single person’s cheek with super speed before finally leaving with the cortex with a whoosh.

Cisco is left alone with their stunned and confused team members. He fights the urge to escape as well, but he guesses the whole relationship thing is teamwork. Barry did his part, and now it is his turn to deal with the issue.

“Did he just kiss my cheek?” Julian asks perplexed, and places his hand against his cheek.

“Most likely,” Cisco answers with an innocent shrug, as if it would not be odd in any way, “but you know Barry. He’s odd and overly affectionate. He’s also firm believer in team building. He doesn’t want this team to get betrayed by any more people, so he is trying to keep the team cohesive,” Cisco says with a grin and tries his best to stiff down a laughter.

He is making it up as he goes, and he does not fully believe that everyone will accept his explanation. However, most of them seem to be fine with it. Julian merely shrugs, and rest of them just stare at him or nod.

Everyone else except Iris, who keeps smirking knowingly at him, and Cisco is convinced there is no way in hell that Iris did not figure out who Barry’s mystery significant other is.

***

After the disaster that was the cheek kiss incident, they both agreed that maybe it was the time to tell the others the truth.

There are many good reasons for this. One being the fact that they are happy, almost deliriously so. Their relationship is working better than Cisco could have imagined. Perhaps there are its own advantages in falling for your best friend.

The other, very good and valid, point is that they both are completely convinced that Iris knows. There is no way that she does not know, and she is just waiting for them to confess, because she knows that they know that she knows.

It is getting rather confusing for all parties involved, and Cisco would prefer if his life did not resemble this much a 90’s situational comedy, and keeping secrets is stressful and they are bad at it.

Therefore, they decide to tell everyone, but of course, nothing goes according to the plan.

At this point, Cisco would be more surprised if something went according to the plan. This time their plan was destroyed in the worst way possible.

Barry gets shot during the mission.

There are plenty of things wrong with that statement. First of all, Barry should be fast enough to dodge all the bullets, and secondly his suit is made of Kevlar. Cisco knows this because he has made the suit by hand and nothing should get through Kevlar. That is why he used it in the first place.

However, the bullet tears its way through the suit into Barry’s stomach.

It is already terrible enough that Barry was shot, but it does not ease Cisco’s mind at all knowing that Barry took the bullet that was meant for him.

It was supposed to be a regular mission, no metas, just an ordinary bank robbery. Something that three speedsters and Vibe should have been able to take care of.

Their guns had seemed odd from the minute they arrived to the place, but no one had realised how different they were before the robbers started shooting.

The bullets seemed like they could go through everything. The robbers started mindlessly shoot at them, and Barry had jumped in front of a bullet that was coming towards Cisco. He could have probably stopped it with a wave of vibration but Barry had been faster.

After that, the team decided it was safer to retreat than try to prevent the robbery from happening.

Everything has been a blur for Cisco after that. They are back in the cortex, and he has no idea how they managed to get there. Barry is lying on the hospital bed, and he is still bleeding. Caitlin and Julian are hovering over his bed, shouting commands to each other, but Cisco cannot hear them properly. It is as if he is underwater.

He is numb, and he does not know what to do. He is not capable of doing anything else except stand there, helplessly and powerlessly. His brain does not function properly.

It is not until Barry calls out to him, that he is able to move and rush to his bedside.

It is obvious that Barry is in pain. He is paler than usually, and sweat covers his forehead. His breathing is heavy and he grimaces from pain as Caitlin and Julian try to remove the bullet.

Cisco takes his hand into his and squeezes it. “It’s going to be fine. It’s going to be okay, just hang in there,” he says, and his own voice sounds foreign to him.

“Cisco-“ Barry starts, and swallows. It is clear that even speaking is challenging for him and causing him to be in agony.

“You don’t have to speak, it’s okay,” Cisco tells him, but Barry is still being his stubborn self, and continues speaking.

“If I-I don’t make it,” he manages out, “I just--want to-- say that,” he continues, and Cisco is not liking the direction of this discussion.

“No, Barry. I know what you want to say, and I _know_ , okay, I know,” he says gently, and strokes Barry’s cheek with his finger.

“You have made it clear even without saying it, and you don’t have to say it now either. Not like this, you can say it after you make through this,” Cisco continues.

He does not want to think the alternative where Barry is not able to say it, but he does not want Barry making love confessions because he fears he might die. He does not want him to say anything he might not mean yet, or something he will regret later.

He wants Barry to say it in peace and because he genuinely wants to say it.

He does want their first love confessions be stained forever by the fact that Barry was, potentially, fatally injured.

Barry gives him a weak and thin smile.

“And just that you know, too, the feeling is mutual,” Cisco says so quietly, that it is almost a whisper. He kisses Barry’s knuckles.

“I know,” Barry breaths out weakly.

“Good.”

Cisco sits there, holding his hand and whispering him reassuring things until Barry passes out of pain. He remains there afterwards, too.

***

It takes hours before Barry gains consciousness again, but when he eventually starts blinking slowly, the whole team is there.

Cisco and Iris sit on opposite sides of his hospital bed, and Joe stands behind Iris. Caitlin, Julian, Wally and Jesse stand in the end of the bed with HR.

“Hey,” Barry tries to greet but his voice is hoarse, “everything okay?”

“You’ll make a full recovery if that’s what you are asking,” Caitlin says with a warm smile, and Julian nods beside her.

“And we took down the robbers while you were out,” Iris tells excitedly to Barry. “I did some research on recent arms deals and called to Felicity to get some more information, and apparently some of the perpetrators had wanted to level up their guns to be able to take down vigilantes and metahumans.”

“Too bad for them, their _Luke Cage_ bullets were too unique, and it didn’t take too much time for Iris to find their identities,” Cisco fills in.

“And Cisco vibed the bullet that hit you, and we got their location as well,” Iris says, and her smile is full of pride.

“Then CCPD could easily catch them with the help of two speedsters,” Joe concludes, and glances at Wally and Jesse who are grinning widely.

“And how long I was out?” Barry asks, amusedly.

“Couple of hours,” Iris shrugs.

Barry tries to laugh, but stops abruptly, and holds his stomach and grimaces out of pain. “Okay, laughing is not a good idea, but great job.”

Everyone nods, and keeps smiling, but no one is doing any effort to move away. All of them stare at Barry, as if they were expecting something, and Barry looks puzzled.

“Oh yeah, they also found out about us,” Cisco tells and takes Barry’s hand into his. “Apparently they overheard our conversation and they think that me kissing your hand is not something platonic friends do.”

Barry’s grin is lopsided. “Fair enough.”

“To be fair, we knew already before the shooting incident,” Wally tells them with a huge grin and a wave of a hand.

“What?”

“You weren’t exactly subtle about your feelings,” Iris confirms, and pats Barry’s arm.

Cisco glances at Barry, who looks as confused as he does. “Yeah-I-but how? We were keeping at as a secret.”

Wally and Jesse snicker, and rest of them try to stifle down a laughter.

“You know, you have been looking at each other with serious case of heart eyes for like, forever, but couple months ago it just intensified, and it was not that hard to connect the dots,” Wally explains.

Cisco looks at Barry, who just shrugs.

“One day, I was walking into the cortex, and I saw Barry kissing your forehead,” Julian says.

Cisco deduces it must have been the day when he got particularly strong vibe and killer headache afterwards. They had not been aware that Julian had been there at any point.

“You are aware that even tabloids are speculating whether the Flash and Vibe are dating,” Caitlin tells them with a chuckle.

“They aren’t,” Barry says in a long-suffering voice, “are they?”

“Yeah,” Jesse confirms with a huge grin, and Cisco feels like banging his head against the wall.

“In addition, you spend almost all of your free time together,” Iris starts, “and when I found out that Barry’s dating someone and you denied knowing anything, it just didn’t add up. So, we came quite quickly to the conclusion that you two are dating.”

“And most importantly, you two are visibly happier than before,” Joe says.

“So you have known the entire time?” Barry asks with disbelief.

In retrospect, it should not been this huge surprise for them, Cisco thinks. Everyone’s secret superhero identities are the worst kept secret in Central City, which already proves that they do not have the necessary skills for secret keeping.

Besides, it seems that their team knows them too well.

“It was around week two, we think,” Iris says with a grin.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Cisco asks desperately.

“Well, you told half a truth to me when explaining the reasons why Barry might not want to reveal everything about his love life immediately,” Iris explains with a soft smile, “we figured out you might need time and space, and we decided to give it to you.”

“That’s really sweet,” Barry starts, “but do you have any idea of the amount of stress that we have suffered while trying to keep it as a secret?”

“It’s your own fault because you decided to keep it as a secret,” Wally says matter-of-factly.

Iris rolls her eyes. “Besides, your odd behaviour was the entertaining part of it. I’m going to miss it,” she answers with snickering.

“So basically it was all for nothing,” Cisco concludes.

He is seriously re-evaluating all of his life choices that have led to this moment and to thinking that they would be able to keep their relationship as a secret.

“Hey, it wasn’t all in vain. You got your relationship working, right?” Iris says gently.

“True that,” Cisco says, and glances at Barry, who is smiling gently at him.

“I think Barry needs some rest,” Caitlin announces, and people start to leave the small sick bay.

Cisco stands up, too, but Barry stops him by grabbing his wrist.

“Are you okay?” Barry asks softly when they are the only ones left in the room.

“Relatively. You didn’t die, which is a huge mood improver, but I’m still pissed that you took a bullet for me, and we’re going to have a lengthy discussion about that, but it can wait.”

“I guess that’s only fair,” Barry says, and a smile tugs in the corner of his mouth, “and can I now say what I intended to say earlier?”

“If you still want to,” Cisco says with a swallow.

Honestly, he did not even think that Barry would even remember that conversation. He had been on the edge of consciousness and had lost lot of blood.

“I love you,” Barry’s voice is soft, and he says it as if it is the easiest thing in the world to say, and yet he seems to be completely convinced by it.

“I love you, too,” Cisco says, and the words just feel right to him.

It is definitely the easiest thing he has said.  

Barry’s smile is enamoured.

“But you really need to rest now,” Cisco says, and reaches down to kiss his forehead, “and I need to figure out what’s tougher than Kevlar.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how this ended up being so long, because it is a mess, but at least I had fun writing it, and I hope you enjoyed it, too. This is really really loosely inspired by the episode of Friends, you all probably know which one. The title is from a song called Uncover by Zara Larsson. All the grammar mistakes are mine, especially as English isn't my first language.


End file.
